By Osa Mbonu-Amadi, Arts Editor

Tejumola Animashaun is a compelling multidisciplinary artist. Her work forms a bridge between traditional and digital media, creating multiple layers of visual narratives and exploring themes of identity, womanhood, and societal boundaries. Her 2025 digital drawing, “The Wait” (ink on paper, 20″ × 24″) is an outstanding work which the artist describes as a deeply personal meditation on the passage of time, such as during moments of stillness. Those are periods often marked by sickness, grief, delays, or creative block. 

For the artist, “stillness” in “The Wait” is figurative rather than literal. “Stillness” could be a condition of feeling stuck, in which an individual is unable to move towards a desired place or goal. This state may be emotionally challenging, especially in a world in which everything is in motion, but it often turns out to be transformative and protective. The hollow figure in the artwork, with a germinating plant in its chest, takes on a symbol of healing and clarity rather than that of passivity. 

Time impacts on us both positively and negatively. Time gives wrinkles to our beautiful body and makes our bodies look old and ugly. Time, as a great teacher, teaches us many things too, cumulatively, from the day we were born to our old age. This dual impact of time is not presented in the work.  Rather, in “The Wait”, time acts as a medium for recovery and adaptation, especially when one is confronted by grief. 

Tejumola draws inspiration from her own life experiences and the experiences of other women around her, to show how “The Wait” expresses a moment of uncertainty in life, which translates to a strong visual message that transcends words, thereby encouraging viewers to reflect on life. 

Since she started showing her works publicly in 2023, and professionally by 2024, Tejumola has created about 80 pieces of artworks, ranging from digital to traditional methods. She recently showed “The Wait” at a group exhibition ArtlyMix in São Paulo, Brazil (2025), alongside other international artists.

Although Tejumola later became an industrial chemist, her artistic journey began in childhood where she used to draw comics. From drawing comics, she began to do expressive portraits and experimental media, including ink, watercolour, acrylic, and digital technology. Now, she has completely embraced digital drawing, due to its inherent creative freedom and portability. However, she acknowledges the challenge of acceptance which digital art has as collectible within the traditional art world.

While some schools of thought believe that beyond aesthetics, art should be functional in the sense of providing solutions to real life problems, Tejumola is of the opinion that aesthetics is a solution in itself, regardless of the intent. She argues that a beautiful piece will always tickle the brain and give it joy. “However, the goal of “The Wait” and my other works such as Damaged goods, Durosola Woman scorned , Small wins, Gbo gbo ero, In loving memory and A seat at the table is to start reflective conversations and give room for people to hope and live better,” she says. “The Wait” achieves that goal by reframing inactivity and hardship as fertile periods similar to the farming method called shifting cultivation in which the farmland is allowed to lie fallow for years in order to regain fertility. 

Tejumola Animashaun’s art is therefore an irresistible invitation to us to come and find growth and healing through stillness. “The Wait” echoes the popular bible verse where God is quoted as saying, “Be still and know that I am God”.